Jewells of Thought

On the local radio station 102.7 I heard a bit of news this morning on my way to the dentist. As soon as they said the Northeast School Corporation and I heard the name memories came back to me. My brothers and I were the last of the Alsman family to graduate from UHS; three generations of Bulldogs.

Freddy and Rosemary Alsman were proud Bulldog Graduates from the 1950’s. I don’t have any of my Photos from school ready to go with this but I remember watching them proudly sit in Grandpa’s class of 1950 for one of the many Homecoming Day Parades.

It’s kind of ironic my uncles and mom heard the rumors when they were in school for a school shutdown. The actual shutdown happened after my younger brother’s graduation. I don’t remember how long afterwards but it wasn’t very long.

The thought of this school closing down gave me shivers up my spine. When something that drastic happens it can surely create a ghost town fairly quickly. History shows us when the opportunities go away so do the people that inhabit that area, look at the mining towns and as they created the railroad as both sides came together little towns were formed specifically at the sites where the workers were long the way. When they moved on the towns moved with the workers.

Northeast was not nice to UHS about closing down at all. It was unsettling how they could be so disrespectful to the community, the teachers and most of all the students. Through a lot of turmoil, tears and prayer the Dugger community came together quickly and organized a movement. It took years. Now the Charter School has a much different atmosphere. The numbers have doubled if not tripled from the number they had at the closing.

Now I can’t go to a family function without hearing about some distant cousins going to the charter school. I never had cousins going to school with me after my first year in kindergarten. Lilly and I were able to be together through most of that year together before my uncle got his new job. Then I guess I had some older cousins who were gone by the time I got to high school they were my 2nd cousins and I don’t remember seeing them as much; Kenny and Dori.

Mr. Baker was the Superintendent overseeing the closing and today that news was about his retiring. He has worked in this school district for 17 years. It’s almost a blessing I guess for him to have closed the school if we are really honest about the whole thing. If it hadn’t been shut down the community wouldn’t have known what they could do by praying for a miracle. The school wouldn’t now be chartered by a Christian College like Grace College either.

Isn’t it funny what God shows us He can do through the most difficult times of our lives. Asking God for guidance is key to unleashing God’s power in your life it doesn’t always end up with a miracle every time. Sometimes the answer from God is No and wait for My Timing.

So could it be that this Mr. Baker instead was the saving grace for my Alma mater? A lot of the Dugger Community was angry at this man for his actions, but in the end something had to be done one way or another and sides were taken. Funny how the timing makes him look more like the instigator for showing our Community who could be leaders themselves. The mantle has changed a few times in the past decade since this has all happened, but Dugger is not a ghost town.